Dry Lucy Park Walk Under Thunder Threatening Sky

Between thunderstorms on this first Sunday of November it was to Lucy Park I ventured for some cloudy nature communing.

After last night's downpours I was expecting the Wichita River to be running more water than it was flowing today.

As you can see via the photo documentation, the Lucy Park suspension bridge is nowhere near being submerged by a flooding river.

My regular way to my motorized means of motion was flooded this morning, making for a longer than the norm walk to vehicular transport.

Currently the sky is growing dark again, and my phone just beeped with an imminent storm warning.

Apparently, in addition to the expected thunderstorming and heavy rain, possible hail and tornado action is on today's weather menu of possibilities. 

I have never heard the tornado sirens go off in this town due to an actual tornado. I experienced that several times whilst living in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone. 

I suspect a nap is in my future today, what with sleeping last night being highly problematic due to the thunder booming...

Thinking Of Cascade Mountain Drive After Night Of Texas Thunderstorms

I saw that which you see here, this 3rd November morning, on Facebook. A look at some mountain scenery on Highway 20, on the last day of the previous month of October.

Highway 20 is a road which traverses through the valley in which I lived prior to moving to Texas, traversing from Anacortes, through the town I grew up in, Burlington, and on east, through North Cascades National Park, before making its way to Eastern Washington.

At my current location I could drive hundreds of miles in any direction and not find any snow-covered mountains.

At my current location, Wichita Falls, Texas, last night, I got to experience one of the wildest storms I have ever experienced. Rain began pouring down about an hour before midnight. And then from midnight on, til daylight, almost nonstop lightning lit up the night and disturbed the possibility of sleep with booming thunder.

A few miles north, across the Red River, in Oklahoma, last night's storm produced multiple tornadoes

Thunderstorming and heavy rain is currently scheduled to start up again in about an hour. 

I currently do not know if my regular outdoor endorphin inducing aerobic activity is going to be doable, due to weather woes, requiring walking in Walmart, instead, which never is even remotely aerobic....

Second November Day In Texas Totally Cloud Covered Whilst Adjusting Time

Looking out my computer room window on this second day of the 2024 version of November, for the first time in a long-time clouds are totally blocking the usual blue sky.

Today is looking like a stereotypical Fall and Winter day in my old home zone of Western Washington.

Rain and thunderstorming is on the Wichita Falls, Texas weather menu for the next several days.

So far, I have seen only slight dripping and have heard no thunder booms, nor seen any bright flashes of light.

This drought plagued part of the planet is in dire need of some excessive precipitation.

I have already turned back time an hour on the four devices in my interior space which require such to be done manually. Only the clock in my motorized means of motion remains to be returned to standard time.

The TV, phone and computer all do the time switch automatically. Why is such not universal?

November's Scenic Wonders Of America Takes Me To Bryce Canyon National Park

I flipped my Scenic Wonders of America wall calendar to November, this morning, to see that this month's scenic wonder is one of my favorite American Scenic Wonders.

Bryce Canyon National Park.

I have only been to Bryce Canyon twice, with the most recent time being Easter weekend of 2096.

Unlike Grand Canyon, and other canyon, Bryce Canyon is not actually a canyon. Why the canyon word is in its name, I do not know.

What I do know is Bryce Canyon is quite similar to Grand Canyon in one aspect, that being that one begins those canyon hikes from the "canyon" rim, hiking far below the "canyon" rim.

Going down is easy. The hike back to start is not so easy, what with the high elevation of both hiking venues making oxygen more scarce than what one is used to.

I remember the Grand Canyon hike to the Colorado River, via the Bright Angel Trail as being so easy, heading down, and so brutal heading back up, with the final hiking hour in the dark.

I remember the names of the Bryce Canyon trails I hiked, the Peekaboo Trail and Navajo Loop Trail. I recollect going down a long series of switchbacks to get to the trails. Going down those switchbacks was easy, hiking back up those switchbacks required a lot of heavy-duty breathing, trying to get oxygen.

I wonder how well, at my current elderly age, I would handle hiking into Bryce or Grand Canyon? It is highly unlikely I will ever find out...